1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a button assembly including a button body and an eyelet adapted to be joined together to attach the button assembly to a garment fabric.
2. Prior Art:
Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. 59-66418 discloses, as reillustrated here in FIG. 8, a button assembly comprising a socket element 10 for snap buttons which includes a plurality of angularly spaced arcuate ridges 11 projecting axially outwardly from an annular base plate 12 of a saucer-shaped socket body 13 of the socket element 10. With the ridges 11 thus provided, the base plate 12 is structually stengthened and has an increased effective thickness so that a free end of the shank of a capped cyelet 14 can be staked or curled on the interior surface of the base plate 12 by a relatively small clinching force when the socket element 10 is to be attached to a relatively thin garment fabric 15.
The disclosed socket element 10 thus constructed, however, has various drawbacks, as described below.
When the eyelet 14 is axially compressed to join with the socket body 13, the arcuate ridges 11 are forced into the garment fabric 15 to pull a portion of the garment fabric 15 radially inwardly toward the center of the socket body 13 with the result that wrinkles are created on the garment fabric 15 around the eyelet 14. With the wrinkled portion thus created, a garment becomes unsightly as a whole. Since the garment fabric 15 is relatively thin, the ridges 11 tend to penetrate such thin garment fabric 15, thereby lowering the fastening strength between the socket element 10 and the garment fabric 15. Such penetration of the ridges 11 makes the effective thickness of the base plate 12 smaller than the expected value with the result that a large clinching force is required to stake the eyelet shank on the base plate 12 because the end portion of the eyelet shank to be curled up onto the base plate 12 becomes long.
Another disadvantage is in that during a batch treatment of the button bodies 13, such as plating in a barrel or orientating in a parts-feeder's hopper, the outwardly projecting ridges 11 hit against the outer surface of another socket body 13, thereby damaging the latter. Furthermore, with the outwardly projecting ridges 11, the socket body 13 has a relatively high profile and hence is likely to be damaged by laundering.